AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF CALIFORNIA. 263 



obtained from five to twenty dollars per acre, those near the 

 market are held at prices far beyond the means of immigrants 

 or persons of less capital. 



With the valley lands so wonderfully rich and productive, with 

 a climate so mild and invigorat ng that cattle may lie in open 

 field under mid-day sun, and neither animals or men suffer from 

 heat, agriculture has progressed rapidly, as has also the ability 

 to wield such immense farms with profit. It is but little over 

 twenty years since the discovery of gold in California, and not 

 until some years after was any considerable degree of attention 

 given to agriculture. At first the want of experience in that 

 peculiar soil and climate retarded its progress, and it is safe to 

 say that the last ten or twelve years have produced the results 

 w^e now witness. The value of these agricultural products in 

 1869 is stated to be $30,000,000. This, considering the popu- 

 lation of the State, — less than 600,000, — is very great. Indeed, 

 the growth and commerce of the cities of California, and the 

 increase of agricultural and manufacturing productions and of 

 mines, in a period of twenty years, is amazing. Tlie variety of 

 crops which may be grown in this State is wonderful. The 

 foreign grape yields more abundantly than in any part of Europe. 

 The fig, orange, almond, mulberry, pomegranate and the olive 

 come to perfection. Silk culture promises to be successful, and 

 large companies are formed for its promotion, and orders are 

 already received from China and Japan for the cocoons on 

 account of their excellence. The culture of the tea plant has 

 been commenced and is likely to succeed, and in the Sacramento 

 valley canals are projected for the culture of rice. 



When we consider that it is only about twenty years since 

 gold was discovered in California and that she has now a popu- 

 lation of nearly 600,000 souls ; that she has a territory 800 miles 

 in length and 200 in breadth, — twenty times as large as Massa- 

 chusetts, three times as large as all of the New England States, 

 four times as large as the State of New York or Pennsylvania ; 

 that she has millions of acres of land equally well suited to 

 tillage as any under cultivation — a soil richer in fertility than 

 the banks of the Nile, a climate whose very breath infuses health, 

 energy and enterprise, we can hardly estimate her future prog- 

 ress, prosperity and power. And now that the great highway 

 of nations has been opened across our continent, now that the 



